PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Key Concepts in International Relations

Why does global human security need to be emphasized along with economic security? Explain with examples.

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 traditional/economic security is state- and income-centred → human security shifts the referent to the individual (freedom from fear, want, indignity) → the two are not interchangeable

Route 2 a country can grow and guard its borders yet its people stay unsafe → income ≠ dignity or safety → human security must sit alongside economic security

Body flow

referent shift (state → individual) → Truong: economically secure states, insecure people → working-woman example (earns well, faces harassment) → comprehensive dimensions (economic/food/health/environmental/personal/community/political) → Buzan’s interconnected sectors (threat in one spreads) → Tickner’s feminist critique + “security paradox” → shift “freedom from fear” → “freedom from want” → global examples (COVID/health, Syria/societal, Rohingya/political, climate/environmental)

Counter-view

realist caution: over-stretched concept risks meaninglessness; state resources finite; raises false expectations

Conclusion routes

Route 1 balance: human security complements, not replaces, economic security

Route 2 economic security safeguards the aggregate, human security safeguards the person → both needed together

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2016, Key Concepts in International Relations